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What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Difference between revisions
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** Expect that last detail to [[Van Helsing Hate Crimes|make things awkward]] in fiction where there are [[Friendly Neighborhood Vampires|good vampires]], or vampires who aren't evil, [[Carnivore Confusion|just hungry]], operating in the same world.
*** It should also be mentioned that a typical way for a Vampire to die (turning to dust/ash) also means that it's a lot easier to ''show'' a Vampire dying or being killed onscreen. Considering that the original way of killng a vampire was far more complicated and involved (i.e.: you had to turn it to ash [[Kill It with Fire|the hard way]]), it should probably be the other way around: that Vampires started dying that way ''because'' it was safer to show on TV.
** Special mention must be made of [[Beta Baddie]]s as they are often on the same level as vampires on this scale (and more than a few vampires have been Beta Baddies). That's when [[Uniqueness Value]] looks the other way. These are characters who ''would'' be considered normal people were it not for a [[Uncanny Valley|few very strange differences]]. The troubling part is this: even though they often look like normal people, even if they go on and on about how [[I Just Want to Be Normal|they wish they were normal people]] (and they often gain the audience's sympathy in the process), '''none''' of the heroes seem to take any of this into consideration and dispatch them with clean consciences. Eerily, some fiction in which Beta Baddies appear even [[Lampshade Hanging|acknowledges]] how twisted this is—and let the good guys blithely kill
* On to living things. The value of the life of a non-human [[Animal Motifs|animal]] in fiction, distressingly, tends to relate directly to how much humans like said animal. Thus dogs are protected by [[Infant Immortality]] but [[Reptiles Are Abhorrent|snakes]], spiders and [[Bug War|insects]] are trampled without a second thought. Sadly, this is [[Truth in Television]]. To paraphrase an old Dennis Leary routine about the Endangered Species Act, "You ''know'' how this is going to end! Eventually, only the [[
** There is also the fact that when a character ceases to be human, they no longer matter. And the fact that it is totally wrong to treat humans like cattle but fine for any other species.
* Not that they appear much as characters in fiction, but [[That Poor Plant|plants, protists, fungi, bacteria, and so on and so forth]] do not count ''at all'' on this scale.
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*** Just for the sake of pointing it out, people who've interpreted certain reactions plants have to external stimuli as signs of plant sentience might be the closest there's ever been to a literal example of the trope [[Epileptic Trees]].
*** If a [[Soapbox Sadie]] is present, though, you can get a major talking-to for this, but it's never really taken seriously, like the character, and is often played for comedy. However, [[Avatar|burning down a forest]] is often a [[Moral Event Horizon]], but that's a different level altogether.
*** Even a plant's life may be deemed quite valuable if it's known to be of an [[Uniqueness Value|endangered species]].
* [[Monster of the Week|Monsters Of The Week]], [[Robeast|Giant Monsters]] and [[Big Creepy-Crawlies]] are generally treated as huge pests and exterminated as such without much controversy, typically in self defense. There are some exceptions. If you are a monster, the more you resemble a more conventional specimen of the creature you are based upon, the fewer people you directly harm, and (most importantly) the more personality you have, the better your chances are for surviving. Some human or other will recognize that you are merely misunderstood and may try to help you. Of course, if you eat ''that'' human, you're pretty much boned.
* If the [[Big Bad]] is revealed to be [[Not Even Human|non-human]] as a [[Tomato Surprise]] or [[One-Winged Angel|assuming his monstrous true form]], it usually makes it OK to kill them if it wasn't before.
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* As far as other fantastic races, it often seems that the morality of killing the race depends on how much they resemble humans either culturally or physically. [[Five Races|Dwarves, elves, gnomes and halflings]] all look relatively human, and so killing them is bad, but the bestial-looking [[Exclusively Evil|orcs, goblins and trolls]] are evil and should be killed. Other races who obviously are not human, but possess cultural traits such as music or clothing styles that the human audience can easily recognize or identify with, are also given preferential treatment over whatever evil races exist.
* And then there is an uncomfortable border line occupied by characters who ''are'' human—but since they aren't "normal", they aren't considered as such. Good [[Cyborg]]s, if the brain is still intact, are almost always considered human, except by the persecutors who harass them. Bad Cyborgs are treated on the same scale as [[Mecha-Mooks]]. Other "partially disembodied" entities, whether they [[Brain In a Jar|once were humans]] or [[Wetware CPU|were made like that]] run the entire spectrum from being accepted as variant humans to "kill them just to end their supposedly nightmarish existence and go drink some [[Brain Bleach]]". The same can be said for [[Transhuman]] characters.
** [[Cloning Blues|Clones]], [[All the Myriad Ways|parallel universe duplicates]], and other [[Doppelganger]]s are [[Expendable Clone|often considered expendable]], even if they absolutely ''are'' biologically human and independent individuals with unique personalities. Restoring an AI from a backup copy is often treated like a [[Disney Death]]. This is all provided at least one "instance" of each character survives. ("Sorry, but we only need one flannel shirt-wearing comic relief guy.") The thing is, [http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff400/fv00383.htm it should be more like a twin sibling dying
* Supernatural entities vary depending on alignment. Typically demons are on the same level as undead. This may depend on exactly how much the characters (and the authors) are unwilling to [[Rogues Gallery|see them again and again]]. Of course, in many settings killing such creatures ''permanently'' can be practically impossible anyway.
This is often one of the reasons why [[Humans Are the Real Monsters|Humans Are Bastards]]. It can get especially awkward, however, when it happens in works of fiction where many of the ''heroes'' aren't human either, leading to uncomfortable [[Fridge Logic]].
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